Richard Barkman
Richard Barkman
Royal Oak, Mi
Richard Barkman
Hey Everyone, please critique my lower leg homework.
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Richard Barkman
Hey all, please critique my calf assignment. Having just looked at Stan’s work again, I see I could have spent more time on line and shape design (straights vs curves, assymetry, etc). Thanks
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Richard Barkman
So as I was doing the hamstring assignment, this photo came across my Instagram feed (don’t judge me, it’s art. LOL). The hamstrings are difficult to identify because there seems to be only one raised column that comes straight from the “egg” of the calf muscles. I’ve associated that ‘column” with the semitendinosus, and shown , in purple, how my muscle overlay matches (and doesn’t) with the furrows in her legs. By the way not all of the ends of the biceps femoris where it connects to the fibulae are shown, because the legs are turned away somewhat. Of course, I could be completely wrong, what do you think?
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Richard Barkman
Hey everyone, please critique my hamstring assignment. Thanks!
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CHARLES DEIGHAN
Here's my Quad Assignment. Decided to use charcoal this time. Critiques welcomed, thanks.
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Richard Barkman
Hey, Charles, here’s what I see: 1) lack of clarity - it’s often hard to see the muscle boundaries, so I can’t tell whether they are accurate or not, 2) line quality is poor and contributes to lack of clarity, 3) the sartorius tends to vary back and forth in thickness along it’s length and between legs - it’s actual thickness is often impossible to see, so I guess we need to at least try to make it somewhat streamlined and uniform, 4) lack of structure, particularly in the knees. Now I need to go back and see if I practiced what I preached! Good luck!
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Richard Barkman
Hey Everyone, please critique my quad assignment. Thanks
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Richard Barkman
I updated the 4 images below with the IT which I neglected in the originals.
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Richard Barkman
I’ve used Skelly for a long time now and it’s a great app. Some additional functionality would help a lot: 1) allow selecting a background from reference photos. When I’m trying to get a pelvis right, for instance, I jump back and forth a lot between skelly and procreate. It would save times of time if the reference was within Skelly. 2) Skelly is not an exact match for any of the main models on Proko. It would be nice to have custom versions of Skelly tailored to some of the models. 3) the ability to morph different parts of Skelly to fit reference would be nice (make the torso smaller, pelvis bigger, arms shorter, etc). 4) provide the ability to straighten the spine as in a deep back end. 5) change the zoom/depth of field for deep perspective…
Richard Barkman
Hey everybody, here is the 2nd part of my adductor assignment. The first part, previously posted, focused on form. This part focuses on the individual muscles. Stan said not to bother but I guess I’m a glutton for punishment. Thanks for looking.
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Jesper Axelsson
Hi, here is my fourth Tarzan drawing. It took 5 h and 15 min. Conté (b & 2b) on A2 printer paper. My main focus was to have an interesting shape and value composition. I wanted the shapes to interlock more, like a puzzle and I wanted the shapes to feel less clumsy. I'm very happy with it :) Feedback appreciated! The composition I had in mind when I started was a triangular shape splitting the canvas in two, with cool active shape design and a lot of energy. I think my brain was bringing up a Frazetta drawing. But the drawing didn't end up that way, because I had trouble coming up with something in that composition where the story was clear. The drawing I did illustrates Tarzan, proclaiming his victory over the lioness he's just defeated. He's yelling and pounding his chest. He has his right foot on the killed lioness. It's a full moon and the jungle lies dark. I think the fight took place out on a clearing in the jungle. The dark shape in the background is supposed to be the tree-top skyline. What do you think of the composition? The shape design? The value design? Do you think the story reads? Thanks in advance :)
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Richard Barkman
Hey Jesper, composition is one of those things I mean to get to one day, so have no clear technical advice for you. However, my eye is drawn to the black shape in the bottom right, instead of to Tarzan. I suggest moving the black shape to envelope at least part of Tarzan, (like his head and Torso, not the lower leg) to draw attention there.
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Richard Barkman
Hey everyone, please critique my adductor assignment.
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Richard Barkman
Hey everyone, please critique the attached butt assignment.
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Richard Barkman
hey everyone, please let me know what you think of the foot bone assignment.
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Liandro
Hey, @Richard Barkman! Awesome job!! I see you already received plenty of helpful comments, so I don’t wanna get too long, but I just wanted to drop by and say that I love the stylistic experimentations you’re making! The broken shapes and vigorous, dynamic and loose abstract strokes bring up an interesting contrast with the rendered forms. On the other hand, I also feel that the anatomy of the back muscles isn’t quite accurate. I made a few notes on the image attached. I know you’re currently studying anatomy, so no worries if you still need more time to strengthen your grip on it - I’m pointing these out just as things to look out for. Maybe one suggestion would be to try some anatomical tracings over your references in order to figure out the underlying structure before going into a more developed rendering. Personally, I like the thick black outlines on some areas as an element of style (and it does remind me of Steve Huston’s work), although I agree that it’s also good to explore some lost edges (which I notice you actually do already in other parts of the drawing) and use outlines carefully so they won’t weigh too much or compete for visual attention against the strongly lit areas. Other than that, just keep going! I can definitely tell you’re moving in the direction of growing your skills even more! Hope you’ll find this helpful. Keep up the good work. 👍
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Richard Barkman
Hi Liandro, thanks for the feedback, especially taking the time to mark up the drawing. One thing I do have trouble with on a drawing like this is correlating the theoretical anatomy I know is there to what I see. Sometimes I leave marks I don’t understand because the look good, and sometimes try to make things look more anatomically correct, and it’s easy (at my level) to make mistakes in either direction. Spending more time doing a muscle layout would certainly help, I agree.
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Steve Lenze
Hey Richard, Nice drawing, and the rendering isn't that far off. I will agree with some of the critiques you have already received, but have a few more. I did a quick diagram over your drawing to show what I see, I hope it helps :)
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Richard Barkman
Steve, thanks for taking the time to do the drawover. I appreciate the feedback.
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Crystal Blue  (she/her)
Very nice drawing, I like the composition and I can tell you put alot of work into the back muscles. I agree with what everyone else said about outlines so I wont add anything else. One thing you can keep in mind is that the core shadow is softer on more rounded planes. In places like the butt and the right leg, the core shadow is very harsh, making the features look cube-y. The harsh core shadow does work well in places like the foot and the right tricep where the plane change is more intense. Once again, great work!
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Richard Barkman
Crystal, Thanks for posting! I’ll take another look.
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Christopher Beaven
Great job on keeping up with art that is meaningful to you and not just practice. That is super important to keep motivated. I agree the texture of the paper is a bit distracting. I've found that if the paper has a lot of texture that I need to increase the size of the piece so that the texture is not as prevalent. Also, the women looks very muscular, almost masculine. Was that intentional? The outline around the entire figure really flattens out the form. You have some chance to incorporate lost edges on the light side of the figure but the outline keep it flat. Other than that I think it's a great drawing. I like the contrast it's very striking. Keep working and keep posting!
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Richard Barkman
Hi Christopher, thanks for taking the time to comment! I like to draw muscular women; if she looks masculine that’s my fault. It’s sometimes difficult for me to decide where to go with hard edges vs soft or lost, as I mentioned in my reply to Kemon I almost went with a lost edge on the torso right side, but was happy with the hard edge. Kemon posted a version without the hard edge which is interesting.
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@kemon
This is your drawing? uhhhhh this is flipping awesome. Legit. This is good work. You've got your shading down, what you need to work on slash study is Lighting. Basically your ability to create form with light is still really good. I can tell you started out with your major lights and darks. But you loose it by overusing your darkest darks and your lightest lights. Your refracted lighting could use some work. Id say in this type of drawing don't use a dark outline on the figure. Instead get creative in finding ways to create that edge of your form In other ways. Its important to lose the edge sometimes. You started to do that with the swooping dark lines and this is a nice technique too. Losing the edge lets the mind do some of the heavy lifting and creates a pleasing visual effect. (I quickly edited your art to show you what I mean.) This next part I wrote as an after thought. Supposing you want the figure to be dark like in a darkened room. You would want the lightest lights to also be darker, You wouldn't see a bright white like this. She could have black as the darkest dark and white as the lightest part but I think in this case you would have to sacrifice most if not all of your mid tones. If there was any refracted light it would be very subtle and almost not noticeable. Once more time: Study lighting, you've got shading down.
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Richard Barkman
Hi Kemon, thanks for taking the time for critique, I appreciate it. You raise some interesting questions. There were many decisions I made on this drawing that I am not sure were correct. The reference photo had rim light on the left (as you suggested), but I decided to throw the left side into dark values to keep the attention focused on one area (the right). I’m not sure if that was the best decision. Also, despite creating the heaviest contrast in the torso, and leaving out details in the arms and legs to focus attention on the torso, I added the black outline to double down on that idea (I originally meant to create some lost edges on that right side) based on some inspiration from Steve Huston. I personally think it works, but I hear you, I almost went the other way. Ultimately, I guess I should be doing small studies to resolve some of these ideas before committing. Anyway, thanks again for your comments!
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Richard Barkman
Hi Everyone. I’m mainly working on getting through the anatomy course, but trying to keep my hand in on basic drawing as shown here. Please critique, 9 had a lot of trouble with this one. I definitely need to take a shading class in the future. This was also was my first drawing on Bristol, which I expected to be smooth but had lots of texture. Thanks for looking.
Richard Barkman
Hi, I ho-e everyone is having a great day! Please critique my leg bones assignment.
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Richard Barkman
Hi everyone, please critique my final shaded iterations of hand drawings versus the previous gesture and structure. @Jesper Axelsson - Jesper, thanks for the previous critique! I had just ‘finished’ shading, but went back in and hopefully made some improvements regarding straights versus curves. It definitely helped, I’ll have to work on it further.
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